Thanks, Obi. You've made me feel much better.

i have high speed dsl here.
actually right now my computer is ok after I logged off, then went directly to the last page instead of starting at the beginning of Intuitive Eating #2, and logged back on again.

On the subject of Intuitive Eating, I read some discussion about thinking like a kid and I can identify with that. I think that as a child I intuitively liked the right kinds of foods. Meaning the right kinds for me. Has anyone else read the Eat Right 4 Your Type info? I was really blown away to notice that many of the foods I instinctively did not like, turn out to be foods I am not supposed to have for my blood type anyway! Unfortunately those were the foods I kept being fed by my mother (meat and potatoes.) And I also do better avoiding wheat, which I was never big on either. I remember being 12 and noticing that every Sunday I'd feel like crap. I figured out what was different on Sundays was that every Sunday after we came home from church my mother would make pancakes. Other days I'd just eat something like a can of soup for breakfast (I have always hated "breakfast food" so I'd just find something else) but on Sundays we had to eat those blasted pancakes. I announced that I didn't want to eat them anymore and voila- I started feeling better on Sundays! So anyway, I think there's a lot of inner wisdom that we have as kids but then we get conditioned away from it so sometimes it's hard to get it back.

Jo, I have never like breakfast either and it used to drive my mom nuts until she let me eat soup and other nonbreakfast food. My favorite was homemade veggie soup which I used to eat often.

I don't eat eggs so made breakfast a waste of time since most people seem to love scrambled egges. For years I stuck to pancakes when possible, but when I went on atkinds that ended I realized I didn't like they way they made me feel afterwards. So I pretty much eat whatever, although I just discovered egg whites and when I have to have something "breakfasty" I alternate between those and wheatena.

Oh, I am glad I am not the only breakfast food rebel. You know what I think is funny? How the addition of "and eggs" makes anything an acceptable breakfast food. (People are such sheep!!)
Pork chops = not a breakfast food.
Pork chops and eggs = breakfast food.
Burrito with beans and cheese = not a breakfast food
Burrito with beans and cheese and egg = breakfast food.

That is just SILLY

I wanted to share something that I read that I thought was interesting.

Hopefully I can help. It sounds like some perfectionism is sneaking up on you. IE isn't about doing it perfectly. It's about taking care of yourself, learning from more difficult times, and moving on without guilt when you do overeat. My experience (I've been doing IE for about 6 years) is that I strayed from IE often but with each binge or overeating episode the time it took me to get back to IE was shorter and shorter. These days I still have the occasional times that I overeat for whatever reason, and I recognize it, try to figure out what happened, and then I move on. This means I don't do any extra exercise, I don't skip meals and I don't feel guilty and beat myself up. Try being a little kinder to yourself.

Think about this - you said you feel guilty and disappointed in yourself and then you punish yourself by eating that way all weekend. Consider yourself as a small child. When you were learning a new behavior (which is what IE is for most of us) such as eating with a fork, if you put the fork in your mouth backwards or dropped it, did your parents get mad and punish you? Did they take the fork away. Hopefully not. They would just encourage you to try again, having patience and understanding. Whenever I hear my own self-talk or start feeling guilty about what I ate, I ask myself if I would treat a small child that way. Your subconscious acts like a small child and believes everything you tell it.

One other thing you mentioned was that IE is hard work. I won't argue with you on that, but maybe you are working too hard as well. There are several behaviors and actions that an Intuitive Eater takes every day, but after a while these things are natural and you don't have to constantly think about it. What I recommend to my clients is to look at one step, for example, asking if you are hungry before you eat. Just focus on that. Don't worry about the rest. When you get that down, then start working on feeling fullness. You have the rest of your life to get this and when you do you will be so glad you took the journey. Even better, for the rest of your life you can eat the foods you love, even every day!

I hope this helps.

Thanks!
Gillian

Gillian Hood-Gabrielson, MS, ACSM
Healthier Outcomes

I'm not a breakfast food eater either. I do like eggs, just not for breakfast. But I don't like cereal at all, either hot or cold. And stuff like pancakes or toast and jam just makes me feel icky afterwards.

I usually have some sort of a salad for breakfast.

I thought about it alittle bit more. Depending on my schedule for the day I more often than not skip breakfast during the week. I just wait a little while longer and go to "lunch" yes I know it is the most important meal of the day but I kinda think if there isn't anything I want to eat it is a waste and I would rather wait. I haven't felt any difference and I usually for better for it.

Okay, so I actually do like breakfast. I make myself eat it every day because I am always hungry when I wake up and I have heard several times that it is very bad to skip meals. There is a lot of different kinds of cereal out there( I love cereal)..have you guys looked at your options?

I'm usually hungry right away but can't have calcium so I use soy milk and whatever else looks good. Sometimes if I don't eat I get too hungry and then tend to overeat when I do eat. I was happy to find out that Westsoy Organic unsweetened has 4 gm of fiber which I really need.

I think with IE i eat when I'm hungry and because of years of not being interested in breakfast food i am just not interested in it very often. Also I am rarely hungry as soon as I wake up. It takes me about 3 hours or so before I start feeling hungry. I guess your energy is supposed to be lower or something, but I manage to knock out my 3 miles of walking and that actually make me feel better than eating something.

Obi, Do you walk outside? I see you're from NY and I'm sure it gets really cold there sometimes. Yesterday it seemed I was hungry all day and couldn't get full. Today is a new day.

I do the walk away the pound tapes. Which means I walk no matter whats going on outside. I recently moved to the suburbs (of NJ) and am thinking about getting a bike since My complex is pretty big and not alot of car traffic.

I was having a bad day at work and ate some oreos (the minis they sell in vending machines) I knew what I was doing and didn't stop but hoping next time I can find something else to make me feel better.

Hi! My name is Andrea and I'm new here. Carolr3639 invited me over from the introductions board. I've been following Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live program and I feel much better on it. However I find it difficult to completely stick to it and I find myself binging fairly often these days. I am completely addicted to sugar.

Anyway, when reading this last page I feel like I can totally relate to the entire breakfast thing. I can't eat when I first get up in the morning, but then by 10 a.m. or so I'm hungry and go for sugar. I need to curb this habit and I'm always at a loss of what to eat. I sometimes have Kashi Seven Grain cereal which I like, but I can't eat the same thing every day. I really like the whole idea of forgetting about 'breakfast' foods and just eat.

When do you all exercise? Last night I ran on the treadmill after I put my daughter down for the night and it worked out pretty well. I'm just worried I won't stick to it because I'm so tired at the end of the day.

Andrea,

It's great to have you here!

I think you will find that if you can cut out the sugar habit you might be less tired by the time you are ready to exercise. Also, once your body becomes accustomed to exercising at a certain time of day that will help too.